Being Chief Comunications Officer for the FIFA 2010 World Cup Organising Comittee SA is like preparing for your wedding day, or the birth of your first child. The anticipation, preparation and planning that go into it are more than made up for by the euphoria of the event

A great deal is at stake and one has to learn to simplify the tasks. After all, most countries are jealous of SA for hosting the Fifa World Cup. And so they should be: this is the world’s biggest sporting showpiece, with a cumulative audience of 26 billion. So one has to work hard to silence all those doubting Thomases around the world who keep insisting that SA won’t be ready.For us, there’s visible evidence that things are on track: those nearly-completed stadiums, the road-building activity and the hotels still under construction. There’s a new airport coming up along the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast and government will soon announce details of an event visa to help usher in the half-million or so expected football faithful.

Indeed, the country’s well set to meet the infrastructural requirements of the tournament. Six new world-class stadiums that are fast changing city skylines remain on course to be completed by the end of 2009, six months ahead of the games. Transport, security and technology plans are ready to ensure that teams and spectators are properly catered for during the tournament.So what’s my own role as Chief Communications Officer? I help direct the Organising Committee’s reputation, milestones and key messages through the internal and external world in reaching the stated goals of hosting the world’s biggest sporting showpiece.

You’d think that the man ultimately responsible for helping communicate SA’s readiness to host this spectacular event would be… well… slightly stressed or on tenterhooks ahead of kick-off. But I’m not. I’m exuding calm. I know that excessive, uncontrollable worry, combined with feelings of anxiety, is a life-impairing condition.

I always like to go into issues management with a calm, collected attitude rather than getting keyed up. It’s good to go in with a nice frame of mind. If one is too wound up, one can make mistakes. And, increasingly, my job as Chief Communications Officer is like being a football manager. I don’t score the goals or save the penalties, but I co-ordinate all the skills at my disposal and make a winning team.So what keeps me awake at night? Visualising the opening match and the last game. It’s like preparing or anticipating that hour when you’ll be strolling down the aisle to take your marriage vows or welcoming a new addition to the family. It takes practice and patience, but ultimately it boils down to readjusting how you think about the world, and really believing that tomorrow is more likely to bring you something wonderful than something frightening.

The rewards of adjusting my mental habits are worth the effort. I know we’re going to host the best Fifa World Cup ever and that we’ll leave a substantial tourism legacy in our wake – and I’m proud to be a part of it.